Sunday, December 1, 2013

A lot of food!

I hope everyone had a great long weekend. We had a great Thanksgiving dinner. The cooks did a wonderful job cooking turkey, ham, steaks, all the usual side dishes, and more. I just finished up my leftovers today.

We're keeping busy monitoring the albatross plots. It's about the peak of egg laying this week. We also have to put bands on any new nesting birds in the plots so we can keep track of which parent is on the nest. Luckily, most of them have bands on them already since we've been monitoring these areas for a few years and the birds nest in almost the same spot each year.

As usual, the tables at the Clipper House were all put together for the holiday meal.

Wine isn't normally allowed at meals in the Clipper House, but they make holiday exceptions.

The pumpkin pie and carrot cake was good.

The volunteers check for new eggs in the Black-footed albatross plot near the end of the runway.

This is what the parade field looks like this week.

This albatross has a rusty fish hook in its neck. We caught it to try to remove it, but it's been in so long that it has healed into the skin. I'm sure the hook was nice stainless steel when it went in and it will probably be worse for the bird to take it out since the bird looks very healthy.

3 comments:

*shudder* That albatross with the hook in its neck. I'm glad it's healthy.

When I was growing up in Wisconsin, we had a home for a few years with a river front. Mom loved to feed the ducks (about 95% mallards) and before long, we started to notice different personalities among them, both in how they acted with us and with the other ducks. We even ended up naming a few.

Do albatross have differing personalities? I'm guessing yes and was wondering if there are any that have stood out for you over your years on Midway and Tern.

The albatross here are mostly very similar. There are a few that are extra aggressive, and some are extra curious. But for the most part, they just give a snap or two when we walk by, and then get over it. It's really difficult to tell them apart though, so most of them don't get named.

About Me

After high school I went into the Navy doing nuclear power stuff on a submarine. After 6 years, I left the Navy then got my biology degree from Montana State Univ. I then worked for the USDA doing human nutrition research for 8 years. I also got my Master's Degree in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of North Dakota. While doing that I worked for Mr. Ellie Pooh selling elephant dung paper (google it) to help the Sri Lanka elephants. After that, I did the only logical thing with my MS and moved to Cleveland, OH and got a job in security at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. It was great, for a while, but I found a 1 year temporary job at Midway Atoll with the US Fish & Wildlife Service. I loved it so much that I moved to an even smaller island with only 4-15 people (Tern Island). After being the Asst Manager, then the Manager, I got the chance to go back to Midway as the Wildlife Biologist for a few more years. Just so you know, I didn't write this as an employee, I just commented about my days here and put up some photos, so these aren't the views of the FWS. I still do ocean work for the FWS, but I do it from the Headquarters office in the Washington D.C. area.